lângă

Forms

lângă (+accusative)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin longō (“along”), an oblique case of longus (“long”) in which unstressed /un/ became /ɨn/, according to Candrea and Densusianu, the REW, Pascu and Ciorănescu.^[2][3][4] Pușcariu, Tiktin, the Academy dictionary, MDA2 and Wiktionary derive it instead from longum ad (“along by”), which Ciorănescu finds less likely for phonetic reasons.^{[2][5][6][7][1]} For the sense he compares Italian longo and Old Occitan lonc.^[2]

The sister branches have Aromanian ningă, Megleno-Romanian lăngă and Istro-Romanian pringę.^[2][8] The Istro-Romanian form has pre fused with the preposition.^[5][6] Pușcariu explains the Aromanian form as fused with în, while Candrea and Densusianu explain its /n-/ by assimilation of /l/ to the following /n/.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, from the early 16th century, in Psalms 139 and 140.^[9] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2 the Palia (1581).^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

From “along, beside” the preposition came to mean simply “near, next to”.^[4][2][10] With pe it forms pe lângă, which besides “past, near by” means “besides, in addition to” and “compared with”: Asta nu e nimic pe lângă ce știu eu “that's nothing compared to what I know”.^[6][2][10] Regional speech contracts these compounds to dângă, dingă (from de lângă) and pângă, pingă, pringă (from pe lângă, pre lângă).^[6][2][5]

Timeline

• early 16th century – lîngă in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• 1570 – in Coresi's Psalter.^[11]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[6]
• 1581 – in the Palia.^[7]
• 1649 – lîngă in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]

Meanings

Preposition

1. beside, near, next to: Stătea lângă fereastră.^[10][1]
2. de lângă “from beside, from near”: băiatul de lângă mine “the boy next to me”.^[10]
3. pe lângă (with an indirect object) to, with someone: a interveni pe lângă cineva “to intercede with someone”.^[10][7]
4. pe lângă past, near by; along: trecea pe lângă casă.^[10]
5. pe lângă compared with; besides, in addition to, pe lângă că “apart from the fact that”.^[10][6]

Related words

• lung
• Megleno-Romanian lăngă
• Latin longus

Usage notes

Lângă takes the accusative.^[1] The proverb Pe lângă copacii cei uscați ard și cei verzi “the green trees burn along with the dry ones” means that those found with the guilty share their fate.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. lîngă
3. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. lîngă
4. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 124
5. ^ a b c d Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 84
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lângă
7. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1331
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 165
9. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 139:6
10. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 582
11. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 11:4
12. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. lîngă